


raise your hopeful voice

by twohourstraffic



Series: take this sinking boat and point it home [5]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 19:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6821875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twohourstraffic/pseuds/twohourstraffic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack turns thirty, makes French toast without bacon and ruins Bitty's plans to propose. Bitty forgives him eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	raise your hopeful voice

**Author's Note:**

> I'll definitely come back and write more stuff that will fit before this piece chronologically, but I really wanted to move the series along and they'd only been together for a few months and it was driving me up the wall. Here, have an eighteen month time jump!

August in Providence dawns crisp and cool. Over the course of the day, the sun will filter through the trees and heat the pavement, warm the water of the river. The streets will be filled with people enjoying the end of summer, the parks with screaming children, cyclists on joyrides. But, at dawn, it’s quiet.

Inside a small apartment, Jack wakes up on his thirtieth birthday with his boyfriend’s cold feet tucked between his legs.

He carefully crawls out of bed, climbs into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and heads off on his daily run. He never listens to music – he’d rather just listen to the sounds of the city. He’s been in Providence for about five years now, and it’s as much home as Montreal or Samwell.

By the time he runs his usual route, makes his way back home and stretches in the park across the street, it’s barely 7:30. Bitty’s still fast asleep, so Jack showers quickly and then crawls back into bed, watching his boyfriend sleep. After almost two years together, it’s still one of his favourite things. Bitty stirs sleepily and opens his eyes.

“Good morning, handsome,” Bitty yawns. “Happy birthday.”

“Good morning yourself,” Jack smiles. “And thank you.” He leans over to kiss Bitty gently, who recoils.

“Jack, give me a few minutes. I have heinous morning breath.”

“Maybe I love your heinous morning breath.”

“You’re so embarrassing,” Bitty mutters, kissing him anyway.

“You love it.”

“I do, Lord help me. Just give me five minutes and I promise I’ll get up and make breakfast.”

“Stay here, I can do it.”

“Baby, it’s your birthday.”

“And I want to make you breakfast, please. Your present to me can be not making fun of my efforts.”

Bitty throws one hand over his heart, doing his best to look offended with ridiculous bed hair. “I would never make fun of you, Jack. I might have made a few suggestions in the past –”

“Yeah, like politely suggesting that I never make waffles again, or refusing to let me touch bacon or poached eggs –”

“– like _helping_ you not burn the bacon,” Bitty says over him, “but I always appreciate that you tried.”

Twenty minutes later, Jack comes back with two heaping plates of challah French toast with bananas and maple syrup. No bacon. Bitty may laugh about it now, but he was pretty clear at the time.

* * *

That evening, they have a party for Jack’s birthday at a local restaurant. It’s a low-key affair for multiple reasons – it’s a Monday night, it’s Jack’s party and the guests are a mishmash of college friends, colleagues and parents. He’s already had to promise both Holster and Shitty that they’ll have a real party soon, to make up for the ‘admittedly appropriate but also kinda fuckin’ lame festivities, come on bro’ that he’s subjected them to.

Halfway through the main course, Jack sits back in his chair and looks around contentedly. Lardo and Ransom are chatting with his mom about something that he can’t quite hear, but he’s pretty sure he’s heard the word ‘discourse’ more than once. Two of his teammates are engaged in a fierce debate with Shitty about some new reality dating show, and Bitty is tucked into a corner, chatting to his dad and Holster.

Jack is struck, not for the first time, by how perfectly Bitty has slotted into his world. He just fits like a glove, like he was made for it. He and Shitty have hit it off far better than he could have hoped (maybe too well; they chirp Jack far too much for his liking), he and Lardo are kindred spirits, Ransom and Holster took one look at him and adopted him into the circle immediately. He’s bonded with Jack’s parents and gets along well with his colleagues and –

He wants to propose to Bitty.

He wants to spend his life with this man.

Holy _fuck_.

This should be the biggest decision of his life but he feels like he made it a long time ago. And instead of filling him with dread, that knowledge soothes him. Like it was always meant to be.  

After dinner, they decide to take a detour and walk back to Jack’s place the long way, winding through quiet house-lined streets with a canopy of trees overhead. Jack’s head is spinning and he doesn’t quite know where to start, so he’s quiet. Bitty knows him well enough to leave him alone for a little while, but his curiosity must soon get the better of him. “Jack? I can hear you thinking, baby. What’s on your mind?”

Jack knows that it’s now or never, that if he doesn’t say something he might lose the nerve. So he just blurts, as quickly as he can, “We should get married.”

Bitty says nothing.

Jack takes his silence as rejection of the notion and starts to ramble. “Do you want to get married? I just feel like this is _good_ , it’s really good, and I can’t imagine it getting any better. With anyone else, I mean. It gets better every day with you, Eric, it really does and I just … I know I’m not perfect, you probably couldn’t find a more flawed person, but you make me want to try and be better, because you’re just so … you, you’re so you, and I just –”

Jack slowly turns to face Bitty, who has said nothing. “Bits, please. Say something?”

Bitty’s face darkens. “Are you fucking _serious_ , Jack?” Jack recoils, startled. “I’ve been planning a perfect proposal for weeks now, and you’re just going to waltz in with ‘we should get married’? Lord in heaven, I did not see that coming.”

Jack pauses. Of the eight best-through-worst case scenarios he had been running through in his head, that was not one he was expecting. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“You’ve totally ruined my proposal, you loser. It was going to be so great but I’m not going to do it. See if I ever marry you now.”

Jack grins. “Oh my God, Bits, propose. Please? I’ll pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“I don’t think you deserve to hear it. It was pretty excellent.” But Jack can see that one corner of Bitty’s mouth is turned up in a small smile.

“OK, well, since I’ve ruined it, you can tell me what it was going to be like.” He pauses. “ _Please_ , Eric?”

Bitty huffs, but grabs Jack’s hand again and runs his thumb over its back affectionately. “Do you really want to know? It’ll probably sound dumb now that you’ve just come out and said it.”

“Nothing you could say right now would sound dumb, love. But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I was just curious.”

Bitty sighs. They keep walking, hands swinging between them. “OK. Fine. I guess I was going to wait until we got home after this dinner. I made dessert and I was going to wait until we were eating on the porch, maybe with some wine. And then I was just going to tell you about how much I love you. And that you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. And that I never thought that I could love anyone enough to get married until I met you, but after that the institution of marriage made so much sense. Wanting to stand up in front of all your friends and family and tell them that you love your partner and you will for as long as you can imagine. That you’ve found the only other person that makes your life mean something _more_ , and you’re going to hold onto them with two hands. And then I would have told you that I’ve realised that I want to marry you, and have kids with you, and grow old with you, and spend the rest of my life waking up with you every morning. And I know you think you’re flawed but so am I, and I want to work on those flaws every day. And that I accept you despite your flaws. And with them. They’re part of you, Jack, and – God, _fuck_ , I just love you so much.” He trails off.

Jack, stunned into silence, doesn’t quite know what to say. Bitty looks up at him, tears glistening in his eyes, and smiles softly. “And then I would have got down on one knee and pulled the ring out from where I stashed it on the balcony this morning, and asked you to marry me.”

Jack doesn’t have much more to say than, “I would have said yes.”

“Too bad I’m not asking,” Bitty murmurs, trying his hardest to keep a straight face.

“That is too bad,” Jack says seriously. “Because, as I said, if you were asking, I would say yes. And then we’d be engaged.”

“That _would_ be nice,” Bitty admits. “But, alas –”

“Bits, I’m sorry I ruined your proposal. But I’d really like for us to be engaged. Now. If that’s OK with you.”

Bitty’s façade cracks. “God, you’re just so … Yes, baby. Let’s get engaged. Now.” He pulls Jack down for a kiss, then they hurry back home so that they can celebrate properly.

Later that night, Jack falls asleep with his fiancé’s cold feet tucked between his legs.


End file.
